Architecture

The Project consists of removing the existing Sixth Street Viaduct and replacing it with a new Viaduct approximately 3,500’ in length that includes an approximately 600’ long approach embankment plus 2,900’ of elevated structure and a maximum of 94’ out-to-out total bridge width. The replacement structure would extend along Alignment Corridor using principles of Bridge Design Concept, subject to design refinements that result from future community input, technical requirements, and a discussion of how to include historical references.

Design details for Bridge Concept 4A are anticipated to evolve into distinct architectural expressions of this concept in terms of elements such as the size, shape, and number of towers and their relationship to one another; configuration of the cable connections; design of the railings; configuration of the sidewalks; design of the underside of the Viaduct; choice of colors, materials and textures; choice of decorative and functional lighting and design of potential gateway elements.

As a project design manager I have worked with a number of award-winning architectural firms based in Los Angeles. I had the opportunity to work on a wide range of building typologies at a variety of scales. I approach design with an emphasis on the relationship between design, culture and society. I am passionate about the creation of buildings that engender meaning, identity, context and the environment. My professional approach addresses challenging issues of context, creating spaces that foster social interaction and collaboration.

I received a professional bachelors degree from Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). I was awarded scholarships from the American Institute of Architecture Student of the Year, Merry Norris Honors, and a full academic scholarship at SCI-Arc. My work has been exhibited, during the NABB accreditation, end of the year Sci-Arc Spring Show, and my final thesis was selected for exhibition. I am also a National Deans List Honoree and an Associate of the American Institute of Architects.

Chongqing, China is located in an exceptional and idiosyncratic urban setting unparalleled in other major cities in China. It is one of China’s most rapidly developing cities, expanding along the Yangtze River and surrounded by the Dava Mountains in the north, Wu Mountains to the east, the Wuling Mountains in the southeast, and the Dalou Mountain range to the south.

Creative inspiration was drawn from the city fabric, the landscape, the views, the unique environment, and the site. The concept design drew its inspiration from those elements and results in a distinctive formal response. Large voids or what we call “view and light apertures” are strategically positioned in the building façade to take full advantage of natural light and views while producing a building design which is completely exclusive to the site.

The “L” shaped building core is skinned with an abstracted foil inspired by the topographical conditions of the surrounding mountains and the indigenous housing. This creates a unique experience for visitors, office workers, and hotel guests as they make their way along the exterior walkways and gives meaning to the foil.

The building plan takes a radical approach.Rather than piercing the core through the middle of the building, vertical circulation was placed at the perimeter and opened up to the sky with a 280-meter tall atrium.

Architect designer of the commercial exterior alteration of the facades. Scope of work included construction drawings of the demolition of non structural façade elements, patching and painting of the building exterior specifications, and details of the installation of metal and fabric vertical awning system.

• Create a greater level of community and tenant interaction on-grade and above grade.

The design integrates passive solar design principles and incorporates sustainable strategies by eliminating double loaded corridors and designing a building fenestration that responds to its solar orientation. The design explored the shifting of housing floors to increase natural light, open space and ventilation.

The design translates the modulation and cadence of the trailer park into the proposed plans and elevations by breaking up the massing into well-proportioned building components. Strategic punctures in the facade create outdoor passive recreational opportunities. This strategy breaks down the building mass to respond to its context, scale and encourages pedestrian interaction with the outside community.

By shifting floor plates, the design creates a dynamic visual connection to community spaces above the ground floor. It was extremely important to break up the plan and elevations into recognizable parts to provide a sense of smaller tenant community components. Walkways include nodes to create opportunities for tenant interaction and recreational open space.

This studio introduced me to the comprehensive design of a building. Through the detailed development of programmatic spaces, structural and environmental systems, life safety provisions, wall sections, and building assemblies, I developed a complete project with respect to the programs design criteria. I also examined the interrelationships of building systems that modify the spatial structure my project and articulate its performance structurally, thermally, acoustically and environmentally.

The Barnes Foundation was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes in Marion Pennsylvania. Among Barnes’ explicit wishes for the future of his remarkable art collection after his death were that it not to be open to the general public, that it not move to Philadelphia and that it have no ties to the Philadelphia establishment. With the opening of the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia last year (designed by Todd Williams and Billie Tsien) all of those wishes were violated. This Studio re examines this project and seeks an architectural response by using architectural drawing techniques.

Convergence of two paradigms: the machinic and the biological.
Observation: the earth, the sky and a between.
Architecture invents/designs the between.
Research stream-structure, materials and behavior of a bird and and airplane.
Muse: architecture of the between.
The Museum of machinic ornithology challenges the inelastic institutional museum type. The traditional role of the museum as a collector/demonstrator of culture is seen as unproductive in this context, given the stated desire for a museum that encourages a new lifestyle and a generator of new experiences a critical part of this new museumscape.

This project will use the program of a house-thing as a tool to study the shift towards a paradigm of Species as opposed to the ubiquitous platform of Types. If Types are traditionally viewed as categories of standardization, and symbolic expressions of form, then Species are malleable entities that are in constant metamorphosis; adaptation and mutation are the main characteristics from Species. The program for this project will be a House, one that will be located in Los Angeles, a city that has a rich history of innovative and unconventional house ‘types’. This house proposes to conduct an extensive research in the cellular logic and construction of structural instability. To radicalize the agenda of the autonomy of form, using the possibilities of kinetic and movement.

In this seminar I studied the relationship between armature and skin of a building, as well as the disipline of structure and ornament in architecure since the early Gothic times. This class introduced me to a deep research platform testing grounds for exploration of manifold surfaces, surface tectonics, material assembly as well as digital fabrication and production in relation to both, relevant historic precedents and influential contemporary projects. Team work with Hector, Gonzalo and Antonio.

This project extends the pedagogy of geometric rigor, digital techniques, and representation. We focused on the development of surface and its relation to curves and volume.The contemporary notion of surface in architecture is due to advances in science, technology, and material production. While planes are inert and defined by x,y,z coordinates, surfaces are dynamic and defined by a u/v matrix. Advanced software such as Maya allowed us to track and control the distribution of geometry across a surface.

Context and environment are the two fundamental terms examined in this course. Beginning with an understanding of what constitutes the experience of place and the relationship between man and nature leading to the architectural notion of what constitutes comfort. The course investigates to what extent the understanding of the environment is culturally and biologically determined. Team work with Alejandro, Aida and Ariel.

This sequence of projects trained me to work with dexterity among 2,3 and 4 dimensional worlds both physical and digital.

I worked with digital tools that enabled me the development of complex surfaces, procedural and parametric forms.I created physical models using CNC (computer numerically controlled) equipment and work with animation and photography to explore relationships among space, time and perception.

This seminar is an introduction to sustainable design techniques, including and analysis of the construction process starting from material selection, use and dismantling of building components, and integration of the engineering systems.
Considering social, economic and climatic conditions, together with re-examination of vernacular wisdom in architecture this seminar offered articulated passive responses to human comfort requirements. In this seminar I explored a case study approach to further understand some of these passive design principles. Team work with Nidal, Antonio and Daniela.